That’s an excellent question, we don’t have a department dedicated to art history, which makes the discussion of A.I. focus on the tool/application level. The larger, deeper cultural issues are being wrestled with at an individual program level. I actually think that is a positive thing, as Illustration, an applied arts, communications program has a profoundly different relationship to A.I. than Visual and Creative Arts, or programs in our business school. I think it is really important to define what we mean when we use blanket terms like A.I., large language models are not the same as text to image generators, and the impacts are profoundly different. A recent opinion piece from a professor in my college’s business school likened the challenges of A.I. to a leaf blower—an irritant/noise and blowing leaves onto another person’s property. You can guess my reaction. The issues about A.I. for most academics seems to revolve around plagiarism, that is the least of my concern. It’s interesting that you mention art history, as my next post is looking at a historical period—-1907-1914—as a similar period of massive change and what lessons we can take from this.
What you do as a visual person is a ‘good’ thing in life. It is an addition to the collective human pool we all share. A.I. Is not adding to that pool, it is hoping to drain it. We won’t let it.
Landed well, Joe. And yes, writing is hard. You're doing a fine job of it for a picture guy.
Thanks so much. Nice to hear from another picture guy who can write like heck.
Thank you so much for these insightful thoughts.
I’m curious, being in academia, if you’ve spoken to anyone in the art history department on the topic of AI?
I wonder how they interpret this contemporary push towards adopting AI technology.
That’s an excellent question, we don’t have a department dedicated to art history, which makes the discussion of A.I. focus on the tool/application level. The larger, deeper cultural issues are being wrestled with at an individual program level. I actually think that is a positive thing, as Illustration, an applied arts, communications program has a profoundly different relationship to A.I. than Visual and Creative Arts, or programs in our business school. I think it is really important to define what we mean when we use blanket terms like A.I., large language models are not the same as text to image generators, and the impacts are profoundly different. A recent opinion piece from a professor in my college’s business school likened the challenges of A.I. to a leaf blower—an irritant/noise and blowing leaves onto another person’s property. You can guess my reaction. The issues about A.I. for most academics seems to revolve around plagiarism, that is the least of my concern. It’s interesting that you mention art history, as my next post is looking at a historical period—-1907-1914—as a similar period of massive change and what lessons we can take from this.
Thanks Joe! I look forward to your next post. Be well.
What you do as a visual person is a ‘good’ thing in life. It is an addition to the collective human pool we all share. A.I. Is not adding to that pool, it is hoping to drain it. We won’t let it.